Silent Hill: The Forgathering
by buddyacker
Summary: Alan Bradley wins a free trip to Silent Hill, West Virginia.  The only catch?  He must bring his son, Greg, with him.  For Leila Smith, Silent Hill is an answer to a question that she never asked.  And for Cheryl Mason, escaping Silent Hill is priority #1
1. Prologue

Silent Hill:

The Forgathering

Prologue

Visalia, California

A life-altering letter arrived in the mail for Alan Bradley. It was from a place called Silent Hill, West Virginia. Alan had never heard of this place before in his life, but he knew from the moment he saw the town's name that it held a special significance for him specifically. He tore open the envelope and took the letter out. It read:

_Boy, have I got some great news for you, Mr. Bradley. You have won a free trip to Silent Hill! Come experience the sights here like the beautiful vastness of Toluca Lake or, if you're in the mood for some fun, come to the Lakeside Amusement Park where you'll find a variety of rides and concessions to keep you entertained for hours! Enclosed are two airline tickets but the catch is you _MUST _bring your son. It is crucial. You will arrive in Shepherd's Glen, a town located right outside of Silent Hill, and you will be escorted to the Grand Hotel, where you will be staying for the duration of your trip. So come on and enjoy yourself! You may not want to leave! In fact, we may not let you—ever!_

_Sincerely,_

_The Silent Hill Restoration Committee_

_What? I didn't sign up for any trips, _Alan thought. He reached inside the envelope and pulled out the tickets. They appeared to be genuine. Alan stood staring at them for a moment. _Well, I was planning on spending my three weeks at home, but it looks like I'm going to be going to Silent Hill now. Oh well. It sounds great. I bet Greg will be happy to get out of the house too._

He walked back to his house from the mailbox and went inside. He went to his son's bedroom door and knocked.

"Come in!" Greg shouted. Alan entered. Greg was lying on his bed, watching television. Alan handed him the letter.

"Here, son. Read this." Greg's eyes scanned hurriedly over the letter and Alan saw a gleam appear in his eyes.

"Wow, awesome! Can we go, dad? Please?"

"Yeah, I suppose we're gonna go. Can't pass up a free trip. Not one that sounds this good. Now, pack your things. We're leaving tomorrow."

"WOO-HOO!" Greg jumped off the bed and ran to his closet. He grabbed a suitcase off the closet floor and began tossing clothes in it.

"Well, you could at least fold them," Alan said.

Silent Hill, West Virginia

Cheryl Mason looked in her rearview mirror at a sign that said: _Welcome to Silent Hill_. She laughed quietly to herself. _Yeah, right, _she thought. _Good riddance to Silent Hill_.

As she drove, she started whistling a tune to herself. It was the lullaby that her mother had always sung to her as a child. She squinted to see out the front windshield. Although she had exited Silent Hill, a dreary fog still lingered in the air like the world's largest, softest marshmallow. A building loomed in the distance but Cheryl couldn't make out what it was. As she neared it, she noticed a sign in front of the gate that led to the building. She could barely read it but as she got closer she was able to make out what it said: Alchemilla Hospital.

_WHAT? _ she thought and slammed on the brakes. _That can't be. I just left Alchemilla Hospital._

She turned in her seat to gaze out the car's back window. She noticed a sign facing away from her. She knew what it said but she backed up to read it nonetheless.

_Welcome to Silent Hill._

She put the car in reverse, turned, and drove away from the sign again. Still the fog remained. Another building. The same building. Alchemilla Hospital.

_Welcome to Silent Hill._

But as Cheryl was driving away from the welcome sign again, she noticed something else written on it. This message had not been on the sign before. Now it said:

_Welcome to Silent Hill. _You're not going anywhere you little bitch_._

Leila Smith was tired of trying to commit suicide. Every time she tried, she either stopped herself or was hindered by another person. The last attempt she had made to hang herself was abruptly put to an end by her boyfriend, Saul. He walked into the room at the exact moment that she stepped off the chair and quickly grabbed her. He was used to her suicidal tendencies but he started screaming at her as soon as he had removed her head from the noose and lowered her to the ground.

"HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?" is what he had shouted, along with other things.

She had just stared off into the distance as usual, used to this reaction. For some reason Saul always stuck around afterwards. She knew he loved her. She loved him too, but she just didn't love herself. She had too many flaws for them to not matter to her.

And those dreams. _Oh God, the dreams. _A little girl with a horribly burnt face. And, during the night after she had tried to hang herself, the dreams got more audible and more terrifying. She heard two words being repeated over and over again. _Silent Hill. Silent Hill. Silent Hill._

She awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. She looked at the clock. It was 12:07. She got up out of bed, went into her office, sat down, and powered up her laptop. She went to Google and typed in "Silent Hill". She scrolled down a bit until a particular link caught her eye. It read: Silent Hill, West Virginia: A Ghost Town with a Past Full of Evil and Death. She clicked on it. She started reading the article.

_Prior to the 17th century, the area where Silent Hill was established was home to an unnamed__Native American__tribe that used the land for rituals. At the end of the century,__settlers__arrived and founded the town; shortly thereafter, they began to rapidly die off. The deaths were attributed to an__epidemic, and Brookhaven Hospital was built to treat those affected. Eventually the settlers fled the town, leaving it abandoned for nearly a century, until it was resettled as a__penal colony__in the early 19th century. Twenty years later, another epidemic broke out, and Brookhaven Hospital was rebuilt and reopened. In the 1840s, the prison was closed, and the town once more abandoned; in the 1850s,__coal__was discovered there by another wave of settlers, and it became a__boomtown._

_During the__American Civil War, the town served as a__prisoner of war__camp; after the end of the war, the building used to house prisoners was converted into a state penitentiary, and later on, Silent Hill became a resort town. Around the same period, a group of religious zealots founded a series of small__doomsday cults__based upon the__eschatology__of the unnamed Native American tribe which occupied the land before settlers arrived. Collectively referring to themselves as "The Order", the cults, each of whom worshipped a different__sub-deity, practiced__human sacrifice__and__necromancy__in an ongoing effort to resurrect "The God", an ancient deity which they believed would usher in an age of paradise by killing all humans. The belief system incorporated such obscure terms/concepts as "Gyromancy", "Mark of Samael" and "Talisman of Metatron". To fund their efforts, The Order dealt a psychedelic drug called White Claudia, manufactured from a plant indigenous to the town. The drug trade served to increase tourism to the town from the residents of surrounding areas, who traveled there to obtain White Claudia. The drug trade was eventually crippled in the midst of a war between The Order and local authorities in which members of The Order murdered several police officers. Users of White Claudia often experienced hallucinogenic encounters with demons. (Source: )_

When she had finished reading, she shut down the laptop, got up, and went in the kitchen and grabbed her car keys. She went to the garage, got in her car, and shut the door. She opened the garage door, cranked up the car, put it in reverse, and backed out of the garage and the driveway.

She knew that Silent Hill was only two states over so she figured she could make it there before nightfall. Saul would wonder where she went, but she knew this was what she had to do.

Everything in her life had led to this moment. Silent Hill was her destiny.


	2. Chapter 1  Welcome to Shepherd's Glen

Chapter One

Welcome to

Shepherd's Glen

"This place sure is foggy," Greg Bradley said as the airplane landed in Shepherd's Glen.

"It sure is," Alan Bradley said. He looked around. He and Greg were alone on the plane. It was eerily silent. He turned and stared at the window. _Can't see anything through this damn fog, _he thought. He did notice a faint light in the distance though.

The airplane's intercom crackled and the pilot's voice rang throughout the empty plane. "Hi, ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot, Captain Reggie Gates. We have arrived in the resort town of Shepherd's Glen. Please…" he started to say, but the radio signal suddenly turned to static. Then the intercom went silent and the lights in the plane went out.

"What the heck?" Greg asked.

A horrible scream erupted from the intercom and Alan and Greg both jumped in fright. It was unlike any sound that Alan had ever heard. The intercom went silent again.

Greg clutched Alan's arm tightly. "Dad, what was that?"

Alan patted him on the back soothingly. "I don't know."

The cockpit door creaked open and lightly bumped the wall. Alan could see a dim light emanating from within the cockpit. He guessed that it was from the front console.

Alan and Greg both stood still for a moment, staring at the door. When nothing happened, Alan decided to go into the cockpit.

"Come on," he told Greg. Greg's grip on his arm tightened even more.

"I don't want to," Greg said.

"Stay behind me. We have to check it out."

"Okay."

Alan tentatively approached the cockpit entrance. Greg followed closely, clutching his hand. When Alan reached the cockpit, he peered nervously inside. He could see the back of the pilot's seat, as well as the co-pilot's, from his viewpoint. He could not see if the pilot was still inside, so he went in a little further. Both seats were empty.

"They're not here," Alan said.

"Where could they have gone?"

"I don't know."

Greg let out a noise of fright and Alan turned to look at him. His eyes were wide with terror and he was pointing at something behind Alan. "Dad…look…look at that…"

Alan turned slowly. There was a large hole in the front window of the plane and a tiny waterfall of blood was dripping into the cockpit from the opening.

"Oh, God," Alan said.

He grabbed Greg's arm and led him back to where they had been seated during the flight. Alan grabbed his suitcase from the overhead compartment and unzipped the front pouch. He pulled his Blackberry from within, turned it on, and dialed 911. When he put the phone up to his ear, he heard a strange noise like a claw hammer being dragged across concrete and then a voice.

"Frank, is that you?" It was a woman.

"Who is this?" Alan asked.

"Oh Frank, why didn't you come back for me? I waited for you for so long. Do you know what they did to me, Frank? Do you? They cut off my fingers, Frank. Then they ate them. Do you know what they did then? They plucked out my eyeballs. Probably ate them too. Do you know why I'm not too sure about that one? BECAUSE I COULDN'T SEE, FRANK!" She started sobbing. "Frank, my Frank, please, please God come get me."

"Who…is…this?"

"Well, you know what? FUCK YOU, FRANK! FUCK YOU! I HOPE THEY CUT OFF YOUR FUCKING FINGERS AND EAT THEM! AND THEN I HOPE THEY PLUCK OUT YOUR GODDAMN EYEBALLS AND EAT THEM TOO! I WANT A DIVORCE!" A horrible scream erupted from the phone then and Alan dropped it and fell to his knees, clutching his ears.

"Daddy!" Greg shouted and ran to him.

Alan shook his head to clear the ringing noise from it and then stood. "I'm okay," he said.

He picked up the Blackberry. It was broken from the fall. "Shit."

He picked up the in-flight phone that was attached to his seat. No dial tone. It was dead.

He pulled his I-Pod out of the suitcase. _This isn't going to be very useful, _he thought. He put it in his pocket. He pulled his laptop out its carrying case, opened it, and pressed the "on" button. Nothing happened. _What? It was fully charged, _he thought. He started going through the remaining contents of the suitcase. He discovered a cigarette lighter, a first aid kit, and a flashlight. He put the first aid kit and flashlight in the laptop case and pocketed the lighter.

Greg started wheezing heavily. Alan pulled Greg's suitcase from the overhead compartment also and dug around inside until he found an inhaler. He handed it to Greg. Greg put it to his lips and pressed the albuterol canister twice, inhaling deeply. Alan remembered a few years ago at one of Greg's baseball games when he had forgot to bring his inhaler. He had had to call an ambulance because Greg had a severe asthma attack while running toward home plate. The EMTs handled it fairly quickly, but Alan had been beating himself up about it pretty badly since then.

Things had been tough on him and Greg since his wife, Krista, had passed away. She had been driving to church one Sunday morning when an eighteen wheeler hydroplaned at a stop sign and plowed into her SUV. She died in the hospital with Alan reading her verses from John and clutching her hand. When her hand went limp, Alan had thrown the Bible across the room and started screaming at the top of his lungs. Then he buried his head in the sheets on the hospital bed and started sobbing uncontrollably. He wrapped his arms around Krista's lifeless body and held her until the nurse came in.

Greg was 9 then. Alan told him that everything was okay, that mommy was in a better place, that she was with God now, even though he didn't accept or believe a word of it himself. He had stopped going to church and lost faith in God completely after she died. He concluded that if there was a God, He wouldn't have let Krista die.

Greg was 12 now. He had gotten over his mother's death as best he could. Alan still drank himself to sleep most nights. He ran his hands across her pillow, trying to remember the warmth where her head had been, but to him it felt as cold as a tomb.

After Greg's breathing returned to normal, Alan gathered up his laptop and put it in the case. He put the case's strap over his shoulder and picked up Greg's suitcase.

"Come on kiddo," he said. Greg walked up and grabbed his hand. Alan looked at the airplane hatch. He didn't even want to imagine what was waiting outside, but he was about to find out.

He walked slowly toward the hatch with Greg tightly grasping his hand. When he finally reached it, he grabbed the handle and pushed it downwards. It made a _swoosh _noise as it opened.

Alan looked out on a desolate runway. The fog hung in the air like smoke billowing straight from the mouth of Hell. It was an unnatural fog, not like the kind that popped up every now and then in Visalia. This was something else altogether. It felt to Alan as if something were lingering just beyond the veil. Something…evil.

He noticed that the airstairs had already been deployed from underneath the fuselage. He figured the pilot had done this via some sort of switch or button when they had landed. He stepped slowly down them and onto the ground and then assisted Greg in doing the same. He led Greg around to the front of the plane so they could get a better vantage point of the hole in the front window of the plane. Alan could see it but there was nothing around to suggest that anything out of the ordinary had went on other than the blood. He didn't want to imagine where that had come from.

Alan looked at his surroundings, trying to make out anything in the murk. He noticed a building nearby. When he squinted up his eyes, he could just make out the lettering above the front entrance: THE SHEPHERD'S INN. _That's where we're supposed to be staying_, he thought.

He and Greg headed toward the hotel.

Cheryl Mason sat on the hood of her car, gun at the ready. She glanced up at the sign again. _Welcome to Silent Hill. _You're not going anywhere you little bitch_._

_Who in the hell wrote that, _she thought. But Cheryl knew, from her experiences in Silent Hill, that the "who" could just as well be a "what". She shuddered.

She heard a sound in the distance. She knew it was the roar of an airplane but she couldn't see where it was coming from because of the thick fog surrounding her. She could tell it was close-by though.

She hypothesized which direction it was in and got back in her car. If she couldn't leave Silent Hill, she wouldn't try to. She knew from the past that her attempts would be futile. But Silent Hill had a way of granting its visitors passage so long as they knew their limitations. Cheryl knew hers.

She cranked up the car, put it in drive, and started heading toward where she thought the plane had landed.

Leila Smith kept glancing at her car's GPS system, wondering if it was leading her in the right direction. The sun was setting already and she still hadn't arrived at her destination. The GPS didn't recognize "Silent Hill" as a town but she had found a nearby location named "Shepherd's Glen" in the directory, so she figured she would start there.

"Turn right," the robotic voice on the GPS said and Leila did as she was told. That's when the fog hit. It came out of seemingly nowhere and enveloped her car in a matter of seconds. She didn't know what to make of it at first, but as she kept driving, a certain sense of…calm overcame her. She felt more at peace at this moment than she had in years. It made her smile.

This place had to be the answer to a question that she had never thought to ask. It was the question that followed her always, lingering at the back of her mind but just now fully formed on her lips.

"Why am I still alive?"

She was sure that Silent Hill would provide an answer to that question. Her smile broadened.

A sign appeared out of the fog. Leila read it as she drove by.

WELCOME TO

SHEPHERD'S GLEN

Where Family Comes First

She thought her heart would explode with excitement.

As Cheryl neared Nathan Avenue in the portion of Silent Hill known as South Vale, she realized that the plane had landed in a nearby town, Shepherd's Glen. She also realized that, unfortunately for her, there was a large lake between her and the town and she had no other way of getting there. _Damn this town and its self-control issues_, she thought.

She knew the lake well. It was Toluca Lake and it was big. She knew there was a boat launch near just down the road from where she was situated behind the Silent Hill Historical Society building.

When she arrived at the building, she parked her car and started toward the boat launch. Luckily, there was a motorboat waiting there for her with the keys already in the ignition. When Cheryl checked the gas gauge on the boat, it was on full. Cheryl didn't believe in fortune in a place like Silent Hill. She knew that if this boat was here it was here for a reason. But she wasn't going to question that reason. That would lead to nothing but trouble. She simply climbed in the boat, started the engine, and pulled away from the dock.

_Next stop, Shepherd's Glen_, she thought.

She didn't run into any obstacles along the way which didn't surprise her at all. Even if she had, she still wouldn't have been startled. Cheryl had developed a "personal relationship" with Silent Hill over the years.

But then she realized something as she pulled up to the dock on the other side of Toluca Lake.

She knew Silent Hill inside and out, but she wasn't in Silent Hill anymore.

She was in Shepherd's Glen.

Alan slowly pushed open the door of The Shepherd's Inn. It was completely dark inside. "Hello?" he called but heard no response except for his own voice echoing back to him.

He saw a light switch on the wall near him and flipped it on. Nothing happened. He took the flashlight out of his laptop case and switched it on. The thin beam of light illuminated a dirty floor and cobweb-covered walls that looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in years.

"Dad, isn't this where we're supposed to be staying?" Greg asked. "It looks like nobody has been in here in forever."

_What the hell is going on_? Alan thought. He swiveled the flashlight around the hotel lobby until its beam touched upon the front reception desk. He led Greg over to the desk. It was a complete mess. There were papers strewn everywhere and a thick layer of dust covered everything.

Alan noticed a newspaper clipping lying on top of the guestbook. He picked it up and began to read it. It said:

LOCAL MAN AND HIS SON FOUND DEAD

_Frank Moore, 36, and his son Zachary, 12, were found dead in their Centralia, WV home yesterday. Police have determined that both victims were murdered but have no leads. The whereabouts of Samantha Moore, Frank's wife and Zachary's mother, are currently unknown. Police are unsure as to whether or not to consider her as a suspect._

"_But I'm not a suspect," she insists. "I'm a victim. They cut off my fingers. Then they ate them. Then they plucked out my eyeballs. I can't see how they would consider me a victim. Get it? I can't SEE! !"_

_Then she went on to provide a couple of more "HAs" but we don't care because she's dead anyway and we already got our share of laughs from that._

_What the fuck_? Alan thought as he finished reading. He put down the clipping and swept the flashlight once again across the desk. When he found nothing of interest, he pointed the flashlight in the direction of the keys hanging behind the desk. There was only one left: the key to room 117. Alan noticed a small piece of paper attached to the key with a message written on it. Greg stood where he was as Alan circled around the desk and grabbed the key.

"Come on up, Mr. Bradley," Alan read aloud. "Your room is waiting."

"What?" Greg said. "Come on dad, let's get out of here."

"You won't get very far," a voice behind Greg said. Alan and Greg both jumped in fright. Alan jerked the flashlight toward where the voice had come from. A woman sporting short blonde hair and wearing a sleeveless hoodie and blue jeans was standing in the doorway of the hotel.

"Who are you?" Alan inquired.

"My name is Cheryl Mason," she said. "And as I said, if you try to leave, you won't get very far. There's no road."

"What do you mean, 'there's no road'? Of course there's a road."

"I mean that there's no road. The road is gone. There is nothing there but a bottomless chasm."

"Okay lady, I don't know what you're on, but my son and I are getting the hell out of this place."

"I think," Cheryl started as she bent down to tie one of her shoelaces, "that we should go check out that room."

"And I think you're nuts."

"Oh no, I'm completely sane. I would wager that when it's all said and done, I'll be the most mentally stable out of the three of us."

"When what's said and done?"

Cheryl gazed at Alan then with such intensity that it made him shiver. "Mr. Bradley…" she began.

"Call me Alan."

"I'm Greg."

"Well, Alan, Greg, it is unfortunate that neither of you were warned what this place was before you came here. I don't know if you were called, or you were driving past and saw the sign, or what it was…"

"We were offered a free vacation here," Alan said.

Cheryl laughed then. "That's a new one. How's your trip been so far?"

"Look, I did research on this place. .gov said that Shepherd's Glen was a 'peaceful resort town, tucked away and hidden from society, full of plenty of outdoor opportunities like hunting and fishing and hiking', you know, the kind of stuff that a father and son could get into."

Cheryl laughed again. "No doubt. I'm sure it is sometimes but as you can see, it isn't right now."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"I can't explain everything to you. That would take all day. I don't even know that much about Shepherd's Glen but I do know quite a bit about its neighbor, Silent Hill, and I'm willing to put my life on it that what's going on in Silent Hill has something to do with what's happening here."

"What exactly is going on in this other town?"

"If I had to sum it up in two words, I would say "evil" and "good". Wickedness and righteousness all wrapped up in one big package, both happening simultaneously."

"Would you stop being so damn cryptic and just give it to us straight?"

"There is no simple explanation, Alan. Experience helps. Once you've been through Silent Hill, what you once thought was hell will seem like a blessing from God. No, I can't really explain it to you, but I can offer a bit of a back story, or try to piece one together from what I can remember. You see, it all started with my father, Harry…"

Leila turned onto Main Street in Shepherd's Glen. She peered out her windshield, trying to make out anything in the fog. She saw a post office on her right and then, further on, a grocery store. Both were completely abandoned and in serious disrepair.

"This is what fate looks like," she said aloud to herself. She felt an odd sensation in her right arm. She looked down at it to see the hands on her wristwatch spinning wildly. She took it off, rolled down the driver's side window, and threw the watch out it.

When she glanced back at the road, she saw a little boy on a sidewalk to the left staring at her. He had short, dark hair and was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. He waved at Leila as she drove by. She waved back and grinned.

As she was waving, out of the corner of her eye she saw a power pole pop up out of nowhere and she had to jerk the steering wheel to the right to avoid hitting it. She let out a sigh of relief and glanced back at where the little boy had been standing. He was gone.

"…and that's how I wound up here," Cheryl finished. Harry simply gaped at her and then burst into laughter.

"Yep, I was right, you are whacko," he said. "Monsters? Ghosts? An unseen force controlling everything? Give me a break."

"I know it sounds completely crazy, but it's true. I have a feeling that you will see it for yourself sooner rather than later."

"I'm sorry about your dad," Greg said. "My mom died three years ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Cheryl said.

"It's okay. I still miss her but I know she's with God now."

Cheryl looked at Alan. He had a painful expression on his face, as if simply bringing up his wife's death had placed the weight of the world on his shoulders. Cheryl cleared her throat and attempted to change the subject.

"We need to find a way to restore power to this place. Now, I'm guessing that the main power box should be in the basement. We should go check it out."

"That's a good idea," Alan said. "My flashlight batteries are bound to die sometime."

"The entrance to the basement should be around here somewhere."

Alan pointed the flashlight toward where Greg had been standing, but he was gone.

"Greg! GREG!" Alan shouted.

"Here it is," Greg said from somewhere to Alan's left. Alan swung the flashlight in that direction to find Greg standing beside a door with a sign next to it. The sign said:

BASEMENT

EMPLOYEES ONLY

"Well, that was easier than I expected," Cheryl said.

Leila parked her car outside of the Burger King in Shepherd's Glen, got out, and went inside. What had attracted her to this particular location was the fact that all the lights in the restaurant were on but when she entered, there was nobody inside.

_Does anybody besides that little boy live in this town_? she wondered. She walked over into the area where all the booths were but they were empty. She noticed a napkin with something written on it lying on top of the booth nearest to her. She picked it up. It said:

_Suddenly I see_

_This is what I wanna be_

_Suddenly I see_

_Why the hell it means so much to me_

Her mouth dropped open. What she was reading was the chorus from her favorite song, "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall.

"Hello?" she called. No answer. She looked at the napkin in disbelief again and then pocketed it.

She went outside, got back in her car, and simply sat for a moment, thinking.

_I knew that my coming here was no coincidence. The answers I'm looking for have got to be in Silent Hill. I must go there._

All of a sudden, lights appeared in the distance. When Leila looked closer, she could see that they were coming from a tall building. She cranked up her car and headed toward it. As she got closer, she could make out the lettering over the door.

"The Shepherd's Inn," she read.

Alan, Greg, and Cheryl all let out collective sighs of relief when Cheryl flipped the main breaker in the power box and the fluorescent lights in the basement blinked on. Several tables and chairs were folded up against the wall and there were what appeared to be hundreds of boxes scattered about. Upon closer inspection, the boxes contained what appeared to be objects that guests at the hotel had left behind. There were clothes, shoes, razors, toothbrushes, keys, wallets, purses, and even DVDs.

Alan picked up one of the DVDs, _Pan's Labyrinth_. He knew the movie well. It was one of his favorites. The plot centers on a young girl, forced to live in a terrible situation, who makes up an imaginary world to escape from the horrors of life. What Alan loved most about the movie was the fact that the made-up world wasn't all sunshine and butterflies; the girl had to go through horrible things to achieve what she was ultimately looking for. The movie ends on a somber note but also a beautiful one at the same time.

"I haven't ever seen that one," Cheryl said. "Then again, I don't watch much TV."

"I didn't get it," Greg said. "It was boring and I don't like reading the words on the bottom of the screen."

"You'll understand it a little better when you're older, son." Alan put the DVD back in the box he had taken it out of and then turned to Cheryl. "So, what do you think we should do next?"

"We should check out room 117."

"I agree. Well, not exactly, but I can't think of anything else. If what you say is true and 'there's no road', I don't think we're gonna be leaving town anytime soon."

"Still mocking me, huh? Oh well. 'Seeing is believing' as the old adage goes. I just hope you or Greg don't have to see what I've seen."

"After that story you told us, I hope we don't either."

They all walked back up the basement stairs and into the hotel lobby. Greg started wheezing again so Alan handed him his inhaler. Cheryl unzipped her hoodie and reached inside. Alan watched as she withdrew a bottle of pills, opened it, and popped one of them in her mouth.

"Paxil," Cheryl said. "My psychiatrist prescribed it to me. He said it would help me with anxiety. It hasn't worked so far."

When Greg's breathing was back under control, Alan took the inhaler from him and put it back in his laptop case. As he was doing so, he caught a glimpse of a woman entering the hotel. She was wearing a leather jacket and leather pants and her hair was put up in a ponytail. Alan was taken aback by her overwhelming beauty. Her eyes were a crystal-clear blue but they were also very sad which made them appear darker than they actually were. Her lips were the rare perfect kind but they also seemed to be the kind that hardly ever took on the form of a smile. They were in that form now but Alan could tell that this woman needed a lot more smiling practice, or that she had known how to smile long ago and had forgotten at some point. Cheryl and Greg took notice of her as well.

"Hi," she said. "I saw the lights come on, so I figured somebody must be in here. My name is Leila Smith. I thought this was supposed to be some sort of a resort town, but the only people I've seen are you three and a little boy."

"How did you get here?" Alan asked.

"I drove."

Alan turned to Cheryl. "I thought you said the roads were out?"

"They are," Cheryl said.

"Then how do you explain her? How exactly the fuck did she drive here if there aren't any roads?"

"Alan, I'm telling you…"

"No, fuck this shit." He turned his attention to Leila. "Do you mind if my son and I hitch a ride out of this hellhole with you?"

"Well, I have to come back," Leila said, "but I saw a bus station about a mile back before I arrived in Shepherd's Glen. I can drive you and your son there if you'd like."

"That's fine. We have money."

"What was that you were saying about a little boy?" Cheryl asked.

"It was the strangest thing," Leila replied. "I saw a little boy on a sidewalk in town waving at me but then it was as if he just…disappeared."

"Been there, seen that," Cheryl said. "Alan, if you try to escape this town, you will be wasting your time. I'm warning you."

"YOU ARE NUTS!" Alan exploded. "THERE ARE NO SUCH THING AS MONSTERS, OR GHOSTS, OR OTHER WORLDS, OR ROADS THAT VANISH INTO THIN AIR!"

"But there are."

"Come on, Greg," Alan said and grabbed Greg's hand. He led him toward the door. Leila turned to go back outside and then suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"What the fuck?" she said.

"What is it?" Alan asked. He let go of Greg's hand and walked around in front of Leila in order to get a better vantage point of what she was looking at. Outside, the fog was thicker than ever, but what Alan saw next made him gape in surprise.

There was a giant wall just at the bottom of the hotel's front steps and as Alan looked around he realized that it surrounded the whole building. He ran down the steps and put his hand on the wall. It was indeed real. He looked up. He couldn't see the top of it because it was so high but he did notice large letters scrawled on it with what appeared to be blood:

**YOU WERE BROUGHT HERE FOR A REASON**

"Wow. That's a new one," Cheryl said from behind him. He turned to stare at her, blinking in disbelief.

"Shall we go to room 117?" she said.


End file.
